Saturday, April 04, 2009

music trivia

I found this site today, http://philbrodieband.com/music_trivia.htm. I don't know how true some of these are but they're interesting nonetheless

*Jimmy Page's first session job for the Decca Label was the recording of "Diamonds" by Jet Harris & Tony Meehan, which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in 1963

*The piano player on Art Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is Larry Knechtel of the group "Bread"

*On the 1977 Emerson, Lake and Palmer tour, there were 63 roadies , including a karate instructor for Palmer and their own doctor. It was also rumored they had a "carpet roadie," whose job was to transport and sweep the Persian rug Lake stood on during the concerts. They also used a 70 piece orchestra.

*Rolling Stones guitarist, Brian Jones, played oboe on "Baby You're A Rich Man" by the Beatles

*Rod Stewart was in a group called 'Shotgun Express' with Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood (the latter two went on to form Fleetwood Mac)

*Paul Bruce Dickinson (who went by the name Bruce Bruce before joining Iron Maiden) released a single with Rowan Atkinson in the UK. It was a cover of Alice Cooper's "(I Want to Be) Elected," and the artists were credited as "Mr. Bean and the Smear Campaign".

*Billy Joel played piano on The Shangri-Las' "Leader Of The Pack" (1964)

*You can sing the chorus of the Beach Boys "Surfing USA" along with Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen"

*Themes from Unforgiven, A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, and Absolute Power were all written by Clint Eastwood

*Cockney Rebel bass player Paul Jeffreys was one of the 270 passengers on Pan-Am flight 103 killed by a terrorist bomb when the plane crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland. Sex Pistol John Lydon and his wife, Nora missed the flight because his wife hadn't packed in time. The Four Tops also had been booked onto the flight returning to the States for Christmas but missed it after a recording session over ran.

*'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen which contains the famous "mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go" line, was knocked off the No.1 position on the UK chart by Abba's 'Mamma Mia' (January 1976).

*Previous to April 1966, David Bowie had recorded under the name of David Jones and The Lower Third.

*Alanis Morissette appeared on the talent show Star Search in 1989 (where she performed a version of the Osmonds' "One Bad Apple") but lost to a singing cowboy named Chad.

*James Brown's wife tried to get her traffic tickets dismissed because of "diplomatic immunity" in June of 1988. She claimed her husband is the official "ambassador of soul". She lost the case